Voter misdirection seemed to be the order of the day for the 2012 election.

In Virginia, Florida and North Carolina, Latino, African American and elderly voters received phone calls telling them they could vote over the phone by providing their name and address to the caller. Other voters in Florida and in Washington, D.C., received robocalls telling them the election was Wednesday, not Tuesday. In Ohio and Arizona, government authorities sent notices announcing the election was on Nov. 8 instead of Nov. 6. In Pennsylvania and Arizona, voters were left messages directing them to the wrong polling places.

As disturbing as it sounds, this purposeful voter misinformation looks relatively benign in the face of reports of voter intimidation. For example:

-- A group of poll monitors in Ohio was barred from the polls after they took photos of voters as they entered the polling place and recorded their names on tablet computers.

-- Latino and African American voters in Florida reported receiving phone calls saying that poll workers would be checking their car insurance and registration status when they arrived at the polls. In other cases, voters waited in line for four to six hours to vote.

-- Voters in Pennsylvania showed up to polling stations to find signs saying photo identification was required - when state law says it is necessary only for first-time voters.

When it comes to voter turnout, the United States is an outlier among advanced industrial democracies. To strengthen our democracy, Americans should be actively working to end these restrictive laws and to find ways to increase voter participation - not restrict it.

These varied attempts to restrict eligible voters' access to the polls are part of a larger movement to repress the vote of certain voters. Since 2011, 19 states have passed laws that restrict voter registration efforts and establish voter identification requirements - laws that the Brennan Center for Justice estimates will disenfranchise the 11 percent of eligible voters who do not have a government-issued photo identification.

Although many of those laws were not in effect in 2012, laws in 13 states were in force for the 2012 presidential election. The Republican Party backed most of these laws, largely because the party realizes that demographic trends make it impossible for them to remain a majority party absent this type of voter suppression.

Internationally, these voter ID laws place the United States alongside countries the U.S. government often frames as "bad actors," that is, those that are not "true" democracies and that seek to limit citizens' rights. In resolution 46/137, the U.N. General Assembly affirmed that "the systematic denial or abridgement of the right to vote on grounds of race or colour is a gross violation of human rights and an affront to the conscience and dignity of mankind, and ... the right to participate in a political system based on common and equal citizenship and universal franchise is essential for the exercise of the principle of periodic and genuine elections."

In their report on the November 2012 election in the United States, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe international electoral observers found "there are real concerns over issues such as voting rights, the accuracy of voter lists ... [and] the issue of voter identification rules is politically polarized. While efforts to ensure the integrity of the vote are important, these should not lead to the disenfranchisement of eligible voters. An estimated 50 million eligible citizens were not registered, raising questions over the effectiveness of measures to ensure that all those entitled are able to cast ballots."

The restrictions on the franchise are especially problematic, given that the United States has among the lowest voting rates of any advanced industrialized country. In 2008, 56.8 percent of our voting age population turned out to vote, and by all accounts, that number was probably lower in last Tuesday's election. Such a level of turnout is more on a par with what can be expected in countries such as Burundi (67 percent in 2010) or Congo (59 percent in 2011), where democratic institutions are considered weak.

Given that the 2008 U.S. voting-age population was about 230 million, some 99 million Americans were eligible to vote but did not go to the polls.

If we want our democratic institutions to be seen as legitimate at home and abroad, we need to do a better job of ensuring that all those eligible to vote have the opportunity to make their voices heard.

Lisa García Bedolla is an associate professor of social and cultural studies at UC Berkeley. She is the co-author of "Mobilizing Inclusion: Transforming the Electorate Through Get-Out-the-Vote Campaigns," (Yale University Press, 2012).

A new Florida law that contributed to long voter lines and caused some to abandon voting altogether was intentionally designed by Florida GOP staff and consultants to inhibit Democratic voters, former GOP officials and current GOP consultants have told The Palm Beach Post.

Republican leaders said in proposing the law that it was meant to save money and fight voter fraud. But a former GOP chairman and former Gov. Charlie Crist, both of whom have been ousted from the party, now say that fraud concerns were advanced only as subterfuge for the law’s main purpose: GOP victory.

Race baiting and the media, makes much more sense to me, ala Treyvon Martin~

Anybody who thinks that the jury got it wrong, probably choose to believe that this was nothing but a racial hate crime, thank you MSM and Barak "if I had a son, he'd look like Trevon" Obama. Even the DOJ spent taxpayer's money trying to organize a Martin defence, as if they knew exactly what happened.
That type of attitude is what keeps racism alive, ala Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton, Rev. Wright, and Louis Farrakhan.
Time to move on.

What's up next?
Will the media take on the ex-NFL star Aaron Hernandez case, and call him a white hispanic also? Afterall he also killed a unarmed black man.
Or will they learn their lesson?_________________I don't drink the 'cool' aid, I drink tequila, it's more honest.

You certainly are a good old boy NW. If Zimmerman had stayed in his car, rather than deciding that an African American with a hoodie must be a thief, Trayvon Martin would be alive today. I would guess that Zimmerman is facing at least a wrongful death civil case, if not a civil rights case.

Nobody knows how the fight started, and that is probably sufficient to find not guilty on second degree murder. But the idea that carrying a gun and stalking someone is a good idea is Florida conservative kind of sick. I bet you love it.

You certainly are a good old boy NW. If Zimmerman had stayed in his car, rather than deciding that an African American with a hoodie must be a thief, Trayvon Martin would be alive today. I would guess that Zimmerman is facing at least a wrongful death civil case, if not a civil rights case.

Nobody knows how the fight started, and that is probably sufficient to find not guilty on second degree murder. But the idea that carrying a gun and stalking someone is a good idea is Florida conservative kind of sick. I bet you love it.

Yeah, shit-howdy!!!
I just love it 'cause I'm just a good 'ol boy!!!

Character assassination, that's all you've got, wear it proudly.
Any further action by the DOJ would be based on racism as well. Tell me this would be the same thing if Martin was white, tell me._________________I don't drink the 'cool' aid, I drink tequila, it's more honest.

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forumYou cannot attach files in this forumYou cannot download files in this forum